


kiss your knuckles

by skateboardachoo



Category: Pentagon (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Confessions, Idiots in Love, M/M, basement shows, established hui/hyojong/hyuna, mestruation crustacean station, shinwon is unfortunately in a terrible indie band
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:42:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21979033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skateboardachoo/pseuds/skateboardachoo
Summary: It's not Wooseok's fault he got elbowed in the nose when he wasn't even in the pit, but Shinwon definitely didn't need to hop off stage to help him.
Relationships: Jung Wooseok/Ko Shinwon
Comments: 10
Kudos: 61





	kiss your knuckles

**Author's Note:**

> i keep bitching about there not being enough shinwooseok fic and billy gave me a twit emoji fic prompt months ago for these two, so i finally spruced it up to post properly. come get y'all juice!!!
> 
> 12/28/19 update: turns out there were a ton of typos bc i didn't bother to read over this as closely as i should have so those are fixed now!!!

It’s not like Wooseok _doesn’t_ not want to be here. It’s just that he had this hopelessly romanticized version of what Hyojong’s house party (it was Hyojong’s party even though it was Hui’s name on the lease and Hyojong didn’t even technically live there) was going to be like in his head. But what’s going on right now is definitely not what he had planned to happen at all. In fact it’s super shitty and frankly kinda whack and— fine maybe he fully doesn’t want to be here. 

Actually, it’s super fucking whack. He’s _supposed_ to be looking hot in jeans that are actually tight and hit his ankles for once, leaning against the wall next to the makeshift stage in Hui’s off-campus house’s basement, sipping on sickly-sweet jungle juice, and making “please-dear-god-fuck-me-but-I-promise-I’m-not-desperate” eyes at Him while His band plays. Instead, Wooseok is in the upstairs bathroom that’s borderline a biohazard titling his head back while He holds a washcloth to Wooseok’s nose. 

He being Shinwon Ko: Hui’s stupidly hot roommate, frontman of the campus’s resident indie band, known anglophile, part-time model, and the object of Wooseok’s embarrassing, overwhelming, and suffocating affection. 

Shinwon’s been in Wooseok’s orbit for a year now, but Wooseok was too chickenshit to do anything after their disastrous first meeting. Hui was dragging Wooseok along to the local record shop to meet Shinwon and then go grab dinner several weeks after Hui had already adopted Wooseok in their shared music theory lecture. 

“I promise you, you’re gonna get along. He likes Stranger Things and pizza. You might like Stranger Things and you definitely like pizza,” Hui said, attempting to convince Wooseok to come along but Wooseok was just making various excuses back at Hui.

“I’ll buy you dinner if you come,” Hui all but begged and Wooseok was never going to turn down free food.

They walked into the record shop and well, needless to say before realizing that the super hot guy at the counter Wooseok oogled at the second they walked it was Shinwon. He shit talked The 1975, Harry Styles, and said John Lennon didn’t deserve rights and promptly bailed out of dinner when Shinwon introduced himself and said “Hey, why do you hate me? Personally? No one says ill about Harold on my watch” and Wooseok felt his heart fall out of his ass.

Several months later, Wooseok never addresses him directly if they're in the same room. That being said, they have every single friend in common and are constantly in the same room together. This is unfortunate for several reasons, mostly revolving around how Wooseok cannot bring himself to move past unknowingly insulting everything Shinwon loves before even saying hello. It’s one of those horrible, embarrassing things that he thinks of mere seconds before finally falling asleep and his brain goes “OH SHIT…I’m okay… Actually, no I’m not.”

All Wooseok could do was pine and daydream thinking that maybe one day he’ll be able to talk to Shinwon Ko without offending another dead Beatle and, by extension, Shinwon’s personhood in the process. 

Tonight though, was going to be The Night. Wooseok was gonna talk to Shinwon after giving him bedroom eyes the entire time through his set. This was a totally normal and completely logical plan that he made approximately fifteen minutes before he could change his mind, of course.

The universe had a lovely time messing with Wooseok. In the midst of Wooseok giving Shinwon the most intense “bend me over sideway please lord I’m begging you” gaze that had gone completely unnoticed for their entire set, some dickhead decided that their second to last song, a slow shoegaze-y number, was the perfect time to open up a pit (which like, wrong basement show my guy, the hardcore set was the next block over) and proceeded to shove himself into Wooseok.

The dickhead caused Wooseok to spill his full cup of jungle juice all over the already sticky concrete floor and then he elbowed Wooseok in the fucking nose (an impressive feat since this dude was at least a foot shorter than him). The commotion had startled Shinwon, interrupting the song into a messy halt, prompting him to yell, “Hey fuckface, no pushing at my fucking show,” and the dickhead had bumrushed the stage and started swinging. 

Wooseok so had _not_ emotionally prepared for this whatsoever. Nor was he emotionally prepared for Shinwon to jump off the platform and tenderly ask him “Hey man, are you good?” Shinwon gasped at the blood steadily gushing out of Wooseok’s nose and took him by the elbow to lead him to the upstairs bathroom. 

Wooseok now sits on the toilet with Shinwon standing above him, his knee propped up on the large ceramic shrimp dressed like butler that Hyojong dubbed “The Menstruation Crustacean” since it holds an entire pharmacy’s aisle worth of tampons and pads on it next to him. It’s utterly ridiculous but it means Shinwon is, like, bodily slotted on top of him even though the only point they’re connected at is Wooseok’s busted nose. 

This is an absolute nightmare situation because Shinwon is looking at him so soft and so open and so concerned. Yeah, maybe it’s the jungle juice making things fuzzy and silly but Shinwon has a halo of light framing his head and Wooseok just thinks _god, is this my guardian angel_?

“No, but I sure do feel like one,” laughs Shinwon, lifting up the washcloth to see if the bleeding has stopped. 

“Oh my god, I said that out loud didn’t I?” Wooseok groans, covering his eyes with his hands hoping he’ll wake up from this horrible hellscape. This was not how he was going to approach Shinwon _at all_. 

Shinwon chuckles a bit and sets the bloody towel on the counter, but doesn’t move his knee from the Menstruation Custacean Station and instead pries Wooseok’s hands from his face, taking the time to stroke his thumb along the chipped black polish on Wooseok’s thumbnail. 

“Yeah, you did. Great news, I think you’re done bleeding and amazing news is I don't think its broken,” Shinwon says.

“Oh, um good. Do you have a lot of experience with broken noses?” Wooseok asks, wincing at his awkwardness. He’s a little bit occupied with how Shinwon is still holding his hands and how his thighs are bracketing Wooseok’s, and Wooseok feels like his entire body and soul is on fire right now, so excuse him if he’s not the most eloquent.

“Remember when Hui busted his nose last year cause Hyuna swung Hyojong’s car door into his face?” Shinwon asks, shifting his knee on the Crustacean. Of course Wooseok remembers. That’s the night the three of them finally got their shit together and Wooseok won twenty bucks and a fat sandwich from the bet. 

Wooseok nods, shocked that he’s even paying enough attention to what Shinwon is saying when his collarbones are just fucking out here in Wooseok’s face from where his breezy patterned short-sleeve isn’t buttoned up all the way. 

“Yeah well, I ended up being the one to tell Huithy his nose was bleeding and crooked and made the three of them hightail it to the emergency room,” Shinwon says, flaking off a piece of Wooseok’s nail polish with his nail, which Wooseok is so beside himself right now he can’t even begin to process as rude. 

Shinwon then decides to send Wooseok straight into an early grave by just, fucking, god, just plopping into Wooseok’s lap like they’ve known each other forever and this just what guys being dudes do. Wooseok inhales sharply and flails only a little bit, accidentally settling his hands on Shinwon’s waist, his teeny tiny waist, made teenier by the billowiness of his shirt tucked into his black jeans. It’s confusing. It’s so, so confusing. The helping him, the standing above him, and now the sitting on him. 

Shinwon quietly laughs and tilts his head down to smirk at Wooseok, and _woof_ that’s something Wooseok is going to have to examine later. After a beat, his smirk breaks and his face falls neutral, a crease forming between his brows.

“Okay listen Wooseok, did I ever like piss you off or something? I know I’m not the best at being a person, but we’ve run in the same circle for a years and you’ve never spoken a word back to me, you’re at this house nearly every single day and still, like, radio silence. Cause I’d, y’know, like to get to know you as a friend or potentially something else,” Shinwon asks and trails off, surprisingly nervous despite them being nearly dick-to-dick.

And Wooseok realizes that he’s kinda of been a dick for a while. His own inability to nut up and just open up his mouth once to say anything to the person he’s been pining over for months now, more importantly an apology of any sort, his belief that he was too awkward and too much of a freshman and too uncool for Shinwon’s scene when in reality it’s been his scene too this whole time. Maybe his actions might have given the wrong impression, like that he’s a huge asshole who just hates Shinwon apparently. 

Wooseok weighs his options. 

One, being he just verbally vomits his feelings onto Shinwon, the mushy gushy feelings that he’s only trusted Yuto and Hyunggu with at 2am after chugging warm Wawa Arnold Palmer and peach Svedka that he keeps so close to his chest it sometimes hurts and then Shinwon rejects him. So then they really just never talk and then they both graduate and will only see each other at Hyojong, Hui, and Hyuna’s promise-ceremony-civil-union-wedding thing where they’re both groomsmen and he’ll have to remember the horrible record store interaction and this even worse bathroom busted nose situation at the wedding and oh god he’s spiraling. 

Or two, everything is fine. 

“I’m like kinda in love with you?” are the words that come out of Wooseok’s mouth, when he means to apologize and act like a rational and sane person. His hands fly off of Shinwon’s waist, realizing that oh shit yes he is in fact touching the object of his affection who thinks he hates him in a very intimate way. 

“Are you asking me or telling me?” is not the response he was expecting, but is a fair question given Wooseok’s chronic bad-at-explaining-himself syndrome. Shinwon loops his arms around his shoulders and twirls a lock of Wooseok’s overgrown hair around his fingers. He’s so close and Wooseok can smell the bergamot and musk of his cologne and count his eyelashes and feel his breath across his lips and Wooseok is gonna lose it. 

“Telling you, I guess? Sorry, in advance, and also sorry that we’re sitting on a toilet right now. And sorry for that time I said really loudly that John Lennon could choke on a dick and that Harry Styles could only wish to be the next Bowie,” Wooseok responds, quietly just barely above a whisper.

Shinwon snorts out a muffled laugh and leans down to rest his forehead of Wooseok’s shoulder before busting out in a high-pitched cackle.

“Wait, hold up. So the entire reason you’ve been avoiding me for months is because you thought I was so personally offended by your shitty music opinions that I could never forgive you. And then you were too chicken shit to say hi after that?” Shinwon asks.

Wooseok cringes physically. When he says it like that it sounds even worse than it already is. He nods.

“So, I spent months begging Hui to invite you over to the house and to other basement shows and to dinner and Wawa because I thought your tall, lumbering, lanky ass was cute and I desperately wanted to talk to you. And then you would come and ignore me the entire time? Because you thought I would never forgive you for talking shit about Harold,” Shinwon asks further, pulling back to press his forehead to Wooseok’s.

Wooseok gulps. It’s all so fucking stupid. And finally two brain cells bumped together in Wooseok’s brain.

“Wait, so you were into me the whole time?” Wooseok asks, shocked and caught off-guard. Blood roars in his ears and his brain is free of all thoughts suddenly. 

“God, you look like that shocked pikachu jpeg right now. So I’m guessing you were glaring daggers at me my whole set because…?” Shinwon trails off, fingers still twirling Wooseok’s hair and giving it light tugs here and there.

“Okay so, I was not glaring daggers. I was trying to be, like, cool, and, like sexy,” Wooseok trails off into a mumble and desperately trying to ignore what Shinwon playing with his hair was doing to him.

“Sexy daggers then,” Shinwon teases, leaning to say this into Wooseok ear with a puff of breath. A shiver runs down Wooseko’s spine. Shinwon should be illegal. 

“Oh my god, I’m in hell, this is hell, Satan is welcoming me with open arms,” Wooseok whines. 

“You’re hotter than hell at least.”

“Please shut up please dear god shut up.”

Shinwon does shut up, but leans forward and Wooseok’s eyes cross a little bit. And Shinwon kisses him. 

It’s a simple press of chapped lips against chapped lips and Shinwon’s eyes are closed and Wooseok shoves any residual nerves down and pulls Shinwon closer so they’re chest to chest. Shinwon grins into Wooseok’s mouth. Wooseok doesn’t even hear the thumping of the baseline from the other band downstairs and doesn’t hear the cheers from every other twenty-something at this basement show, all that’s audible is the rapid thumping of his own heartbeat in his ears and the happy sigh from Shinwon as Wooseok softens his lips to kiss Shinwon more deeply with weeks and months worth of repressed emotions behind it. They take their time but then Shinwon whines and grinds down when Wooseok nips at his bottom lip.

Minutes, hours, who fucking knows at this point, there’s a shallow chuckle followed by Shinwon pulling away from him and Wooseok thinks he’s fucked up again. Was there too much spit? Sure he hasn’t kissed anyone since his first and last frat party freshman year but he can’t be _that_ bad. Thankfully, Shinwon just rests his forehead on Wooseok’s shoulder, turned into the crook of his neck and chuckles.

“I promise I’m not laughing at you, I’m laughing because we’re on a fucking toilet right now and I wanna get you off so bad but we're on a _toilet_. And I’m resisting so I can ask you out on a proper date. Maybe coffee?” Shinwon says into his neck. And it takes Wooseok half a beat to catch up to what shinwon is saying.

“I’d like that. I’d like that a lot. And I think I’d like to get off this toilet now,” Wooseok says. 

Shinwon laughs and hauls Wooseok up for the second time that night, only this time he leans up to kiss Wooseok’s half-open mouth instead of tugging him out of the pit. 

“I’ll argue with you properly about Harry Styles at coffee,” Shinwon teases with a wink and Wooseok groans.

“That’s gonna be a thing forever now, isn’t it?” 

“Oh absolutely, you’re never gonna live that shit down.”

**Author's Note:**

> don't be like college me and drink warm arnold palmer and peach svedka in your friend's off campus house. 
> 
> [twit](https://www.twitter.com/skateboardachoo)


End file.
